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Facebook Accounts Found for Sale

An attacker claimed to have access to a total of 120 million Facebook accounts, the attacker can view messages on 81,000 of them. The users affected were primarily based in the Ukraine and Russia, but some victims have been seen in the US, UK, and Brazil. The information was being sold on an underground forum for ten cents an account.  It is believed this attack was conducted in September but since then the advertisements for the accounts have been removed. Attackers used a malicious browser extension which scraped user data to steal information including access to Facebook accounts. The researchers who found the advertisements stated, ” We have contacted browser-makers to ensure that known malicious extensions are no longer available to download in their stores. We have also contacted law enforcement and have worked with local authorities to remove the website that displayed information from Facebook accounts.”

Analyst Notes

When browsing on Facebook it’s always advised to use a secure connection whenever available, which can be enabled in Facebook Account Settings. Some Facebook applications get all of the consents they can, including access to your data and the capacity to post photographs and announcements “on your sake.” Make sure to be aware of the applications that are given permission, and do not download browser extensions without verification. Whenever possible, go through setting and make sure that the account is set to private mode to limit what attackers can see on your account if they are not friends with you.